The Better Public Media Trust is strongly opposed to government plans to scrap the Broadcasting Standards Authority.

The BSA is the only real protection New Zealand has against rogue broadcasters and dodgy media companies who want to put out lies, abuse or misinformation. Since 1989, the BSAt has done an excellent job keeping our television and radio broadcasters up to scratch.

The BSA upholds standards by which all broadcasters must abide:

• offensive and disturbing content,
• the interests of children,
• promotion of illegal or antisocial behaviour,
• discrimination and denigration,
• balance,
• accuracy,
• privacy, and
• fairness.

Without these standards being upheld, New Zealand’s media will get a lot worse.

For years, many observers have been calling on the government to increase the BSA’s scope to include online media rather than scrap it. In 2023 the Department of Internal Affairs conducted a huge research project called “Safer Online Services” and recommended a system like in Australia and the UK that included elements of industry self-regulation backed up by a strong statutory authority like the BSA. It was ready to go but Internal Affairs Minister, Brooke Van Velden scrapped it in 2024.

Now, the Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith proposes to remove statutory authority to stop the media cowboys and replace the BSA with a system where media manages their own standards. We've seen what has happened in the US without proper media regulation. Such an organisation would have no ‘teeth’ and as a result standards will slide.

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